Noted Adventist Bible Scholar, Editor is Recovering from a Heart Attack

by Monte Sahlin

By AT News Team, March 24, 2014
 
Dr. William Johnsson, one of the most respected Bible scholars in the Seventh-day Adventist denomination and retired editor of the Adventist Review, suffered a heart attack while on a trip to Australia. He was rushed to the emergency room on Sabbath, March 15, after preaching at a local church and spent five days in the hospital. His wife was with him on the trip.
 
Johnsson is not yet cleared to return home. The couple will probably return to their home in the United States in a couple of weeks, sources have told Adventist Today. They were both raised in Australia and began service as missionaries in India as Australian nationals.
 
The author of more than 20 books and a thousand journal articles, Johnsson was a faculty member at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary at Andrews University before he joined the editorial staff of the Adventist Review at the denomination's General Conference (GC) offices in the suburbs of Washington DC. He has written commentaries on the gospels of Matthew and Mark, as well as two volumes on the book of Hebrews.
 
In 1979 he was elected the first president of the Adventist Society of Religious Studies, the primary scholarly organization for Adventist theologians and Bible scholars. He continues to serve as one of the trustees of the Ellen G. White Estate and an assistant to the GC president for interfaith relations. Mrs. Johnsson served for a number of years as director of children's ministries for the denomination's North American Division.